As renewable resources are developed there is a greater need for low-cost, efficient, and compact means of converting energy from a variety of sources for transfer to the grid. One barrier to a full adoption of these renewable energy sources is transferring energy from the energy source, generally just a few volts DC into the grid, generally at least 110 Volts AC. Multiphase systems further complicate matters. Due to the complexity of converting the supplied DC voltage for supplying energy to the grid, for example in synchronizing with the energy grid, and size of the electrical components, for example large transformers, it is highly desirable to be able to reuse these components across a variety of energy sources, for example photovoltaics, wind farms, fuel cells, etc. Reusing components has the potentially to reduce cost, size, heat, and increase efficiency.
There has been a recent push towards efforts in multiple input converter systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,227,277 describes a DC to DC system combining many components of the buck boost converter in an effort to reduce cost. However, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,227,277 must additionally convert the energy from DC to AC and properly synchronize with the grid in order to provide energy to the grid. Generally, a larger transformer will be required to amplify the voltage from the converter to the voltage of the grid. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a low cost energy, efficient, compact, energy conversion means, preferably easily allowing for multiple inputs.